Earnings Outlook For General Electric

On Tuesday, January 26, General Electric GE will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's outlook for General Electric is included in the following report.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, And Earnings Per Share?

Earnings and especially earnings per share (EPS) are useful measures of a company's profitability. Total earnings, which is also referred to as net income, equals total revenue minus total expenses. EPS equals to net income divided by the number of shares outstanding.

Earnings And Revenue

General Electric EPS will likely be near $0.09 while revenue will be around $21.82 billion, according to analysts. In the same quarter last year, General Electric reported earnings per share of $0.21 on sales of $26.24 billion.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

Analysts who cover this company will publish forward-looking estimates of its revenue and EPS each quarter. Averaging together every EPS and revenue prediction that each analyst makes about a company in a quarter yields the "consensus estimates." A company posting earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate is known as an "earnings surprise" and may move the stock by a considerable margin.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 57.14% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be down 16.84% from the same quarter last year. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 6.45%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders won't be happy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. General Electric is scheduled to hold the call at 08:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.